Pretty much every one mentioned here is my favorite and I can't really choose one. The Samurai and Mainway set the standard for characters, Murphy came along with Buckwheat and Mr. Robinson and hilarity ensued, Norm's Burt Reynolds and Hammond's Sean Connery are brilliant and Will Ferrell's stuff is beyond hysterical. But really, the heyday for characters like this is the late 80s-early 90s SNL. Church Lady, Frankenstein/Tarzan/Tonto, Satan, the Girlwatchers, Frozen Caveman Lawyer, Matt Foley, Wayne and Garth, there's too much goodness from that SNL era.

Oh, and my favorite is the Continental. When in doubt, choose Walken.

We're the middle children of history...no purpose or place. We have no Great War, no Great Depression. Our great war, our defining crucible, is a spiritual war.

It's Pat. She/he just had the right amount of wackiness needed to make the skits not seem to drag on like so many SNL skits tend to do. There was just enough curiosity there about whether Pat was male or female, yet the jokes and dialog were changed up enough to not seem repetitive.

Close second to Daryl Hannah as Prez Clinton. Truly underrated, and much better than Dana Carvey who did Ross Perot better than he did the first Bush.

For all your CZW and Nickels Trivia information. I am now the Sex Division Trivia Champion, and on September 10 I face someone who actually works part time in the WWE! Will I be starstruck, or will I hold him down worse than the WWE holds down Val Venis? STAY TUNED!

There are way too many things to chose from here. Hammond as Clinton and Ferrell as Bush were both good. Anyone involved with Jeopardy was usually excellent. And of course anything where Will Ferell appeared on my screen was pretty much a favorite. Anyone else like that Ferell sketch where he was wearing the red, white, and blue thong? Yeah, that does sound weird.

As for older stuff, I have to go with Mr. Robinson's neighborhood as tops among many.

4) Any Jeopordy. Especially with Norm MacDonald.3) Anything with Walken is bound to be good. "NEVER QUESTION BRUCE DICKENSON" and his Christmas tribute song to his mother were especially great.2) "You don't even blink do you. Quick, staring contest. YOU WIN! You always do!"1) CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN!

Originally posted by samoflangeBill Brasky. Not a character played by an actor so much as a character talked about by the actors.

He's a ten foot tall beastman who showers in grain alcohol and feeds his babies shrimp scampi!He drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls!I once saw him scissor kick Angela Lansbury!Like an alligator, he can fully digest a turtle shell!

Classic line from that sketch:

"I masturbate to the Teletubbies."

My favorite characters and sketches always seem to change with each new SNL season. My current favorites at the moment are:

Darrell Hammond doing HardballMerv the PervDebbie Downer (The cast can never get through that sketch without losing it)Almost anything Seth Meyers is in (David "ZINGER", Pranksters, The couple who should be divorced, etc.)

Originally posted by Roy.The Tarzan, Frankenstein, and Tonto skits always have me laughing very hard, especially the one where Hartman loses it right in the middle and tries to save it.

This is actually a famous skit in SNL history, as it was the one time that Phil Hartman actually broke up during a skit. He was renowned among the SNL crew for never breaking character, no matter how ridiculous things got in a sketch (witness his stone face in the Matt Foley sketch when Christina Applegate and Spade are losing it). So he started laughing as Frankenstein, and everyone asked him about it afterwards, and his only response was that it just finally struck him what a silly premise for a sketch that Frankenstein/Tonto/Tarzan was.

I'm not sure if I can pick one favourite character, but one that nobody has mentioned so far are the NPR ladies (Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer). Those sketches used to slay me.

(edited by Big Bad on 9.9.05 2345)On the flip side, congrats to ABC for hiring Tim McGraw to tailor the lyrics to "I like it, I love it" for every halftime highlight show throughout the "Monday Night Football" season. Just last week, my buddy House and I were discussing Cosell's classic highlight narratives in the '70s, and how nobody had approached them since, and I told House, "Only one thing could ever come close, and I know it's a long shot, but what if ABC hired Tim McGraw to tailor the lyrics to 'I Like it, I Love It' for each week of NFL highlights throughout the season?" And wouldn't you know, it happened! See, dreams can come true. --- Bill Simmons, www.sportsguy.net

Originally posted by Big BadI'm not sure if I can pick one favourite character, but one that nobody has mentioned so far are the NPR ladies (Molly Shannon and Ana Gasteyer). Those sketches used to slay me.

Good times, good times. The Alec Baldwin show when he introduced his "Schweaty Balls"...